APATURA I. 



under the microscope, a mottling of vinous and green. (Fig. r. e^.) The last 

 fall brood all assume this color, and hjbernate also after the second moult. And 

 the earlier broods sometimes all hjbernate, as I observed last season (1874). 



Celtts is common in certain localities in West Virginia, usually, if not always, 

 near streams, along the banks of which the food-plant of its larva grows. This 

 is the Hackberry, Celtis occidentalis, a small tree much resembling the Ehn in 

 the shape and style of its leaves and the rougliness of its bark ; found, accord- 

 ing to Gray, from New England to Wisconsin and southward. Probably the 

 range of the butterfly is nearly coextensive with that of the tree, though the 

 former must be rare in New England and eastern New York. Prof. H. W. Parker 

 states that it is found in Massachusetts, along the banks of the Connecticut 

 River, but is not common. Throughout the Mississippi valley it is abundant, 

 and I have received many specimens from Texas. It has not been taken, so 

 for as I know, in the Rocky Mountains, nor in New Mexico or Arizona, although 

 LeUia inhabits the latter State. Celtis is exceedingly alert, restless, and inquisi- 

 tive, active on the wing, but without sustained flight, and darts froui one object 

 to another so swiftly that the eye can scarcely follow it, alighting but for an in- 

 stant on tree trunk or leaf, the dress of one passing, or the traveller's horse. 

 More than once it has sprung upon the net which I was carrying. Its usual 

 attitude is exj^ressive of its disposition, the wings erect, the head and antenna^ 

 raised, suspicious of surprises. But it will haunt a favorite spot for days, and the 

 collector has only to wait patient!}' a while and it may be captured. It is readily 

 attracted also by a sugared bait, and a string of dried apples, saturated with 

 syrup and suspended among the branches of the tree which it frequents, may be 

 employed to advantage. Occasionally, I have seen it upon flowers, but a rotten 

 apple or fiiUen grape is much more to its taste, and esjjecially, if there is any 

 decaying or fetid animal matter in the vicinity, it will greedily settle upon it, 

 and then loses all sense of danger and may be covered by the net without even 

 attempting to rise. 



Very early in the season a few faded and broken females of Celtis are to be 

 seen, the survivors of the last j^ear's broods. The caterpillars also hybernate, prob- 

 ably hidden among the cork}' ridges of the bark of the tree, which in hue 

 their winter coating closely resembles. It has been conjectured that they fall 

 with the leaf, and attached by a web to its under surfoce, so pass the winter on 

 the ground, and in the Northern States.- mider the snow, ready to discover the 

 tree and ascend it on the first coming of spring. It is not unlikely that many of 

 the hybernating caterpillars do fall with the leaves, which are detached by the 

 first frosts, and carry with them also the newly hatched larvie, or those of the 



